Board Vice Chair Nana Agyenim Boateng I, speaking on Akoma FM’s weekend political show Wonsom Saturday, August 7, explained that “we are not against the choice of the traders as to which company or client to provide the meters but we want them to exhaust all procedures to avoid future unforseens”.
The leadership of the traders directed all their members to, as a matter of urgency, suspend all payments of bills and other monthly tariffs to management until the outstanding meter acquisition issues are resolved.
The issue of acquiring individual meters for the over 7,000 traders in the new Kejetia market surfaced after the traders consistently complained about exorbitant electricity bills.
The traders, therefore, urged third parties through competitive bidding to supply the meters.
Intelligent Metering and Energy Solutions (IMES) and Shenzhen CLOU electronics Company Limited are the two major companies who showed interest in supplying the meters to the traders.
IMES is said to supply each meter at the cost of $145 whereas CLOU is also willing to supply their meters at $125.
The traders after broader consultation preferred CLOU’s offer to that of the IMES’.
They believe the board and management of the market are dragging their feet in closing the deal with CLOU hence their directive to suspend payments of bills and other monthly tariffs to management.
But Nana Agyenim Boateng I, explaining the issues, told host of the show Aduanaba Kofi Asante Ennin that “we shouldn’t sacrifice due diligence for some personal gains, because the board has to go through the proper channels and exhaust all appropriate protocols to ensure the proper things are done”.
He further noted that “after 10 to 15 years when the market leaders are no more in charge, we the traditional leaders and chiefs will still be at post so we will be blamed if we jump issues hasten process just because we feel it is the right thing to do now”.
He further directed the market leaders to revert their decision to withdraw payments of bills and other monthly tariffs to ensure a common front in tackling such issues that have been bedeviling the market and Kumasi at large.
By Nana Asenso Mensah|Akoma FM|3news.com|Ghana
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